


A Bat in Robin Colors

by sid_pinetree



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Cassandra Cain is Robin, Damian Wayne is Batman, Gen, for a night, he's not important, lots of characters mentioned but it's really just cass and dami
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:53:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29117058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sid_pinetree/pseuds/sid_pinetree
Summary: It's Cass's birthday and she has something she wants to ask Damian for....In past years, when Damian asks, she requests illustrations of ballerinas or aerial dancers but this year she asks for something different.“Robin.”“What?” he sounds confused, a little angry but his body is all scared.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Damian Wayne
Comments: 5
Kudos: 57





	A Bat in Robin Colors

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to try out writing Cass for a change.

Cass never celebrates her birthday on the day she was born. She always celebrates the day Bruce adopted her. There is never much point in surprises in a house of detectives so her family just asks her what she wants. Most often she asks for time, time together, like going to the movies or the aquarium. She asks for clothes and weapons sometimes but she can ask for that any time.

In past years, when Damian asks, she requests illustrations of ballerinas or aerial dancers but this year she asks for something different.

“Robin.”

“What?” he sounds confused, a little angry but his body is all scared.

“I’d like to be Robin for a day,” she clarifies.

The fear melts away but he is still confused in his brow. He asks why and she doesn’t explain. She only smiles and pokes his nose, laughing as he attempts to dodge her teasing. She would explain but it is hard to put it into words.

All of her siblings have been Robin at least once. Even Steph has been Robin. Dick was Robin for years before he became Nightwing. Jason loved being Robin and probably would have been Robin longer than Dick if… he hadn’t died. Tim had not wanted to be Robin but had grown to love it, had been hurt to lose it. Stephanie… she had loved it but she had been hurt by it all the same. Sometimes Cass was still mad at Bruce for that, for making Robin hurt for Steph when all she wanted to do was help him. Damian loved Robin, adored it, but was always afraid it would be taken from him like it had been taken from Tim. Duke had been a wonderful Robin, spreading its magic to others before he found his own light.

She was the only one of them, well the only one of them beside Barbara, who had never been Robin. It did not upset her. She had loved being Batgirl and she loved being Black Bat but she wanted to experience Robin’s magic for herself for one night. She wanted to feel the magic they spoke of for one night, to understand it.

“Would you be my Batman for a night, baby brother?”

Shock. Fear. Pride. Happiness. She could see all their feelings on their bodies but she couldn’t understand them, she didn’t know where they came from. The pride, the happiness, they seemed positive but would they hurt him. Was vigilantism for Damian, for all of them really, like giving chocolate to a dog? She didn’t know. Knowing what people would do, how they felt did not mean you understood, that you knew what brought those feelings to life. 

“Of course, Cassandra.”

She wrapped her arms around him and pressed a kiss to his head. She hoped Robin’s magic was not a trick. She hoped vigilantism wasn’t a sweet poison

It takes a while for the costumes to be done, so they don’t go out as Batman and Robin on her birthday. Things are rough for a while, back to back escapes making it hard for Bruce to allow them to fly as the dynamic duo. It’s March before she gets to be Robin but she doesn’t mind. Dick tells her it’s a good omen to go in spring. His birthday is the first day of spring, she remembers. It reminds her of the pride and pain on his face every time he hears someone call Damian, Robin.

She’s not sure if she’s right, if that’s where the pain comes from but she tells him to ask Damian for the same gift. He smiles and says he’ll think about it in a way the means that he won’t. He doesn’t want to talk about it, so she doesn’t ask.

It’s a little before Dick’s birthday when she gets to go out as Robin. She wonders if it’s bad that she didn’t wait until spring, if the omen Dick told her about won’t be a good one because she went out too soon. But then again, she’s not sure she believes in omens.

The suit is simple with dark green leggings, almost black bleeding into a dark red tunic. The golden R and the parakeet green of her upper sleeves and gloves being the brightest parts of the costume. Despite its presence in nearly every Robin design, she had left off the cape. Her transition from Batgirl to Black Bat had helped her solidify her opinions on capes and she decided she disliked them. The cape was good if you wanted to appear bigger or needed a shield for bullets but as someone with fast enough reflexes to dodge bullets, it just got in her way. Usually, she leaves her hair down but Stephanie had been by earlier that day, scooping her short hair into two pigtails. She leaves them up.

Damian’s costume is precisely like Bruce’s, only smaller, not a single deviation. She knows he wants to be Batman, almost as much as she wants to be Batman but his costume is not Damian Wayne as Batman but Damian trying to be Bruce Wayne’s Batman. She vows to herself now that he will not get to be Batman again until he’s ready to be Batman as himself.

“Batman.”

“Let’s go, Robin.”

  
  


She lets him drive the Batmobile, something she knows the others would never allow. She has not taken the car often and she does not like driving. She does not think she can drive the Batmobile, with how different it is from other cars. Damian parks the car in the Diamond District and then they take to the sky. As they stand on the edge of the roof, looking out for crime down below she holds back a smile at the image this make. A tiny Batman shadowed by an only slightly bigger Robin. The night seems peaceful and Damian quickly grows impatient, radioing Oracle to ask if there are any crimes in progress close by. Nothing. Not even a B&E, only silence.

He growls as she spots something from the corner of her eye. She tugs him to the left and sends her arm shooting out. Look, little brother, see the looming form filled with sadistic pleasure. Do you see the boy trembling, his stilted movements, afraid to be hurt more?

Batman fires his grapple and descends, Robin following swiftly. She jumps on the thug’s shoulders before Batman lands. She could take him out now but that’s not how Robin would play it. She leans forward over the man’s face yells “boo!” He flinches back and tosses her forward but she doesn’t hit the wall, instead managing to attach herself to the fire escape.

He stumbles, once, then twice before Damian nails him in the jaw from below diverting his path from the trash cans. Usually, she’d watch or try to help more but she slips down to the boy instead. There’s a bruise forming on his cheek and there’s blood gathering on his knees, his jeans freshly ripped.

His eyes are blown wide as he takes her in, a confused, “Robin?” piercing through the rough sounds of gloves pounding flesh. She holds out her hand to him in answer. He hesitates a moment, his eyes sliding back to the fight before gives his hand to her. She guides him out of the alleyway and walks him down about a block.

“Phone?”

He startles at the question. She wonders what she can do to drive the shakiness out but maybe she shouldn’t. Caution could serve one well in Gotham. Caution could serve one well anywhere, really.

“I left it at home… when I ran out.”

She comms Oracle for the police. “Already on their way,” Barbara intones in her ear, emotions indescribable in her synthesizer.

“Do you have somewhere to stay?”

He reassures her that he does and he isn’t lying. She asks if he’d like some help getting there and he says no. He wasn’t lying so she doesn’t bother to follow. He will only feel more unsafe if she follows at a distance. She takes to the roofs and heads back to the alley. Batman is waiting on the roof, staring down at their defeated foe.

“Do you want to get ice cream?”

He jumps and snarls “no” even though his body says yes. She tries to poke him and he ducks away, annoyed.

“Stop teasing me, Robin! Robin is not supposed to tease Batman.”

Cass had been under the impression that teasing Batman was what Robin did. Instead of pointing this out to him, she repeated “ice cream” again. Tonight was not a busy night. Bruce had probably only let them do this because he had made sure it was not going to be busy. She’s going to steal his nachos next movie night.

By the time the police show up, she’s managed to convince Damian of the necessity of the ice cream. They head out of the Diamond District and towards downtown for a better ice cream parlor. Tim and her had once made the mistake of picking up ice cream from Christine’s and it was so boring. The ice cream wasn’t bad but it kept its flavors limited to the classics. Ice cream in the Diamond District is usually bland. Damian sends the car ahead of them on autopilot.

They end up going to Dick and Damian’s favorite ice cream shop, Ice Cream Treble, and Cass takes the opportunity to tease Damian even more by asking him if she should get the Black Licorice flavor. It is Dick’s favorite and she knows Damian finds it abhorrent. She ends up getting the Peanut Waffle Shuffle while Damian gets one of their Bats and Rogues themed ice creams, the Joker-Batman blast. The flavor has too much pow and not enough texture for her, being a mint-lime blend for the Joker, with chocolate and blueberry sauce for Batman. She doesn’t know how he can stand it.

It’s a bit cold for ice cream so she makes them eat in the car even though Damian fusses about messing up the interior. She channels a bit of Steph in her voice when she tells him he can eat on the hood if he’s so concerned. She knows he’s only being grumpy about it for show. Both Bruce and Damian like to act grumpy about anything they enjoy. The duality of their body language and their words annoys her even though she can see through it.

She still doesn’t understand what makes Robin magic but maybe she doesn’t have to. Spending time with her little brother is the best kind of magic. She pulls his cowl off as he finishes his cone and plops her chin on his hair, wrapping her arms gently around him as he squirms in surprise.

“Next time, as Dami and Cass?”

“Where?”

“Somewhere in the sun.”


End file.
